“The content of their character”

Today’s celebration of the life and gift of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. begins in our hearts.

I found the draft of Dr. King’s signature oration, “I have a dream” at the The King Center and brings us back to August 28, 1963. The type written draft was for a speech for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, written while convalescing from exhaustion and having just heard he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Dr. King’s speech eventually became one of the most widely recognized and quoted addresses of American History.

Unfortunately, Dr. King could give that speech today, particularly when looking at the need for freedom of violence that so controls our permanently poor youth in Albany County. While race relations have become less of a flash point, poverty, grinding hopelessness and dehumanizing materialism present the challenges of our time, if we are to break the permanent cycle of poverty.

If you get the chance, visit Dr. King’s Memorial in Lincoln Park, just off Morton Ave. above the Lincoln Park Pool. It is a terrific marble memorial well worth the visit. Today’s celebration events can be found at the nyking.org/celebration/index.htm

“Any time is the right time to do the right thing” was an added quote, wonderful to read in the xxxxxxxxxx out portion of a sentence typed almost five decades ago. The draft if so powerful and moving; it has to be God’s gift to string those words, thoughts and images together but the delivery is even more of a testimony to rebuilding the kingdom of God on earth. Watch the actual speech at the link below.

Michael Conners

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